Club News

The New Year opened with a rather weird and decidedly quick match at Stamford.

First on was Aidan (5) against Paul Partington. Aidan was a late call-in due to illness, and he acquitted himself better than he appeared to believe. However Paul was just too classy a player, the match ending 3-11 6-11 2-11.

The first match on the other court was the top strings as Stamford’s no.1, Tania Bailey, needed to get away promptly. She and Matt have played before and it been close, but not on this occasion as Tania (the former World No.5) didn’t seem her usual self. Matt was also struggling with injury but was able to compensate better and won through 11-9 11-3 11-6, though he didn’t appear too enamoured with it!

By then Jan Brynjolffssen (4) was on court against Jon Hand. The first game was reasonably tight, going the way of the Stamford player 11-9. However following that Jon warmed up, and took the next two with increasing ease, his ability to drop the ball short from seemingly anywhere repeatedly catching Jan out. Game scores were 9-11 6-11 3-11.

The last two matches were more A&E contenders. Mark (3) and Rob Vivian both had back problems, but Mark’s seemed the greater, even when warmed by the old Melbourn Squash Club jumper that Corrine had dug out of the back of the wardrobe. He gradually loosened up as the match progressed, but that merely took him from looking very stiff to slightly stiff and resulted in a 2-11 5-11 7-11 defeat.

Meanwhile Ed (2) was looking athletic and highly mobile against Spencer Beresford, who started out that way but quickly began to feel a pre-existing leg injury. Ed played some really good stuff, some of it as early as the second rally of the match which featured some spectacular defence and fitness before being turned around for a winning drop. That excellent play, combined with Bez struggling more and more, combined for an 11-7 11-5 11-5 win.

And we were done before 9 o’clock! Which just meant longer in the pub, and more time to consume the very nice pie-and-chips offering for those who made it along.